Rwanda and Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment

WASHINGTON/PARIS/KINSHASA – Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) signed a US-brokered peace agreement on June 27, raising hopes for an end to fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more in 2025.

The agreement marks a breakthrough in talks held by US President Donald Trump’s administration and aims to attract billions of dollars of Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals. 

At a ceremony with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, the two African countries’ foreign ministers signed the agreement pledging to implement a 2024 deal that would see Rwandan troops withdraw from eastern DRC within 90 days, according to a version initialled by technical teams last week and seen by Reuters.

Kinshasa and Kigali will also launch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days, the agreement said.

“They were going at it for many years, and with machetes – it is one of the worst, one of the worst wars that anyone has ever seen. And I just happened to have somebody that was able to get it settled,” Mr Trump said on June 27, ahead of the signing of the deal in Washington.

“We’re getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They’re so honoured to be here. They never thought they’d be coming.”

Mr Trump had been due to meet the foreign ministers in the Oval Office on June 27.

Rwanda has sent at least 7,000 soldiers over the border, according to analysts and diplomats, in support of the M23 rebels, who seized eastern DRC’s two largest cities and lucrative mining areas in a lightning advance earlier in 2025.

The gains in 2025 by M23, the latest cycle in a decades-old conflict with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, sparked fears that a wider war could draw in the DRC’s neighbours.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe called the deal a turning point.

DRC Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said the agreement must be followed by disengagement.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the initialled version of the agreement.

Economic deals

Mr Massad Boulos, Mr Trump's senior adviser for Africa, told Reuters in May that Washington wanted the peace deal and accompanying minerals deals to be signed simultaneously this summer.

Mr Rubio said on June 27 that heads of state would be “here in Washington in a few weeks to finalise the complete protocol and agreement”.

However, the agreement signed on June 27 gives the DRC and Rwanda three months to launch a framework “to expand foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains”, according to the initialled version seen by Reuters.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on June 27 that another agreement on the framework would be signed by the heads of state at a separate White House event at an unspecified time.

There is an understanding that progress in ongoing talks in Doha – a separate but parallel mediation effort with delegations from the Congolese government and M23 – is essential before the signing of the economic framework, the source said.

The agreement signed on June 27 was set to voice “full support” for the Qatar-hosted talks, according to the initialled version.

It also says the DRC and Rwanda will form a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days and implement a plan agreed in 2024 to monitor and verify the withdrawal of Rwandan soldiers within three months. 

Congolese military operations targeting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a DRC-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda’s former army and militias that carried out the 1994 genocide, are meant to conclude over the same timeframe.

Reuters reported on June 26 that Congolese negotiators had dropped an earlier demand that Rwandan troops immediately leave eastern DRC, paving the way for the signing ceremony on June 27.

The DRC, the United Nations and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms.

Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defence against the DRC’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

“This is the best chance we have at a peace process for the moment despite all the challenges and flaws,” said Dr Jason Stearns, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University in Canada who specialises in Africa’s Great Lakes region.

Similar formulas have been attempted before, Dr Stearns added, and “it will be up to the US, as they are the godfather of this deal, to make sure both sides abide by the terms”.

The agreement signed on June 27 says Rwanda and the DRC will de-risk mineral supply chains and establish value chains “that link both countries, in partnership, as appropriate, with the US and US investors”, according to the initialled version seen by Reuters.

The terms carry “a strategic message: securing the east also means securing investments”, said Mr Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at the DRC’s Ebuteli research institute.

“It remains to be seen whether this economic logic will suffice” to end the fighting, he added. REUTERS